The ISS Engineering Feat: Design

International Space Station exploded configuration.

International Space Station exploded configuration.

Media Credit: NASA

January 13, 2020 • By Rafe Van Wagenen

This blog post is part of “The ISS Engineering Feat” series contributed by Rafe Van Wagenen, a 10th-grade student at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut. Van Wagenen is interested in space and engineering and is inspired by the ISS as an engineering marvel. He wants to help others understand more about the impressive engineering involved in building and operating the ISS.

Possibly the most interesting thing about the International Space Station (ISS) is not its experiments but how impressive of an engineering feat it is. After varying success with past space stations, multiple countries came together to build the ISS with new technologies that allowed it to be assembled and upgraded in space. The space station is divided into two main parts: the habitable modules and the solar and radiator arrays, both of which required an incredible amount of design and engineering.

The forward end of the International Space Station is pictured showing portions of five modules. From right to left is a portion of the U.S. Destiny laboratory module linking forward to the Harmony module. Attached to the port side of Harmony (left foreground) is the Kibo laboratory module from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with its logistics module berthed on top. On Harmonys starboard side (center background) is the Columbus laboratory module from ESA (European Space Agency).

Media Credit: NASA

Successful operation of the habitable modules is the most important thing. The modules had to be sent to orbit and docked to the station but also must provide an airtight seal to protect the astronauts inside. These modules are important because they had to be designed for astronauts to do research and experiments in an enclosed area without gravity. However, there is another critical part of the station: the solar arrays.

U.S. astronaut Terry Virts tweeted this image on Mar. 1, 2015, and asked this question: Can you spot the space walker in this picture? Hes very small compared to the enormous starboard truss of the #ISS. Terry is a flight engineer on the International Space Station.

Media Credit: NASA

The solar panels and radiators are responsible for powering and cooling the station. The radiators have to cool the station while the sun is heating one side and the cool vacuum of space is freezing the other side. Powering and cooling a space station are vital, and these operations have been challenging in past stations.

The ISS is easy to simplify; however, in reality, it is extremely complex and requires engineering by many different people from many different nations to work successfully.

Learn more in additional posts in the “The ISS Engineering Feat” series on ISS power and cooling, solar array repair, and robotics.